Even though turning video games into movies continues to be an expensive and risky proposition, Hollywood keeps hoping they can figure out the formula, because if they do, there’s plenty of money to be made. Over at Sony, they’ve been trying very hard to bring PlayStation hit “Uncharted” to the big screen for years now, and it’s not been for lack of effort that it hasn’t happened. David O’Russell was attached for a spell, with names like Mark Wahlberg, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Scarlett Johansson linked in possible roles, but it sounded too good to be true, and it never lifted off. And since then, a rotating number of directors have come and gone including Neil Burger, Seth Gordon, and Joe Carnahan. Now, yet another filmmaker, perhaps the most uninspired choice of all, is going to give it a crack.
Shawn Levy, whose tentpole credits include “Real Steel” and “The Night At The Museum” trilogy, is now attached to direct “Uncharted.” The project currently has a draft of the script by Carnahan, but I would presume it’ll get another pass as it’s retooled for Levy’s sensibilities (just as many screenwriters, if not more, have worked on the screenplay over the years including O’Russell, “Safe House” scribe David Guggenheim and “Zero Dark Thirty” writer Mark Boal).
While Deadline says “Uncharted” is on the fast track, we’ve also head this before, with Sony once dating the movie for a 2016 release date. And even Levy has other things to get to first, including directing episodes of “Stranger Things” season two (don’t forget, he helmed two episodes of season one, “Chapter Three: Holly, Jolly” and “Chapter Four: The Body“). So, not necessarily holding my breath this movie will get going anytime soon, but anything can happen I suppose.